Alice is walking alone through the forest/haunted house/whatever when suddenly she hears a noise. Ominous music starts playing as she looks around, obviously scared. Then suddenly, something knocks her down and starts to drag her away by the ankle. She screams for help, kicks at whatever it is and tries to grab hold of something, desperately digging her fingernails into the ground as she goes. Expect a final scream as she disappears into the shadows.

A variation occurs in a swamp or lake, where something suddenly latches onto Alice's ankle and instantly pulls her beneath the surface. This is often followed by an underwater shot showing Alice struggling and flailing as she inevitably drowns.

The key point here is the fact that Alice is always dragged away by her ankle, never by any other body part.

May lead into a horizontal Take My Hand-like scenario as Bob tries to rescue Alice. Sometimes subverted via Giving Them the Strip if the victim's footwear comes off in the attacker's grip.

Examples:

In Pokemon Special, just as Courtney tries to tell Ruby about the truth about his father, a tentacle grabs her ankle and drags her into the Cave of Origins just as said cave collapses on her.

Done to Sango in the third InuYasha movie, but she was saved by Kagome.

R.O.D the TV: After collapsing a passageway, Maggie gets pulled into the chasm by a paper whip via her ankle.

This is how Kanoe takes a hold of Kotori in The Movie version of X/1999, with the help of a sort-of warp passage formed under the victim's feet. Subverted when Fuuma notices, tries to grab Kotori by the hand — and ends up pulled too, which is how he gets snared by the Dragons of the Earth.

Comic Books

The cover of The Powerpuff Girls #60 (DC run, "The Purple Pages of Peril") has a menacing hand emerging from a book and trying to pull Blossom in by her foot. Bubbles and Buttercup strain a sinew to keep her from being yanked in.

In The Rugrats Movie, Angelica sings a cover of Blondie's "One Way Or Another" as she looks for her missing doll. Her foot gets caught in the handstrap of Spike's leash, so as Spike takes off to chase a squirrel, he drags Angelica through the forest with him.

In Sorority Row one of the main characters is sent to turn off the overheating jacuzzi, which has created a giant mass of bubbles, while her sorority sisters go into the house. Soon thereafter, appears at a glass door, begging to be let inside after apparently being chased by the Killer. Unknown to her, a thick wire has become tangled around her ankle, and before the other characters can get to her, she is violently dragged off to her doom.

Cthulhu. Happens to the protagonist; he's knocked out by a villain and wakes up to find himself being dragged into a dark doorway by something, but manages to break free.

While the dragger is not seen either time, the demon in the Paranormal Activity films drags Katie out of bed by an ankle in the first movie and Kristi out of Hunter's nursery, down two flights of stairs, and into the basement in the second.

A variation occurs in Tremors as, when running away from one of the Graboids, Rhonda trips over a line of barbed wire which gets tangled around her ankles. As she tried to get it off, one of the monsters grabs the pole the wire is attached to and begins to drag her towards its open mouth. Thankfully, she is saved by Val who pulls her boots and pants off to help her get free and escape.

In Alien: Resurrection, a xenomorph crawls into a lifepod and starts tearing apart the helpless occupants. One of them tries to climb out of the pod, but is dragged back inside screaming.

In Starship Troopers, one soldier loses her nerve after seeing another soldier torn apart by several Bugs and flees for her life. As she runs, the ground collapses beneath her and she lands in one of the Bugs' tunnels and is confronted by one. She tries to crawl away but the Bug grabs her ankle and drags her deeper into the tunnels to an undoubtedly grisly end.

The first time in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, where the men are attacked by the Kraken - with one at least been held up by the ankle. Happens later when the Kraken attacks the Black Pearl and Elizabeth is nearly dragged off by one of the tentacles.

In Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, it happens when Captain Black Beard takes telepathic control of the ropes on his ship, with at least one man been grabbed by the ankle, while later Angelica is nearly dragged underwater when a Mermaid grabs her with a seaweed lasso - but Jack saves her just in time.

In Hollow Man, Elizabeth Shue's character is grabbed and pulled off a ladder by Kevin Bacon's character and falls on top of an elevator.

Happens in Wait Until Dark when Alan Arkin's character leaps and grabs Audrey Hepburn's ankle as she tries to get out of her home.

In A Perfect Murder at the end of the movie, Steven and Emily get into a fight and he grabs her ankle to trip her up. Also occurs only seconds later when she's on the ground and he grabs her and pulls her to him but Emily is still able to grab the gun and kill him.

Also happens in The Thing (2011) when Kate falls into the ship and is hiding from the thing, when it finds her, grabs her ankle, and drags her to another part of the ship but Kate manages to grab the explosive and is able to kill the creature.

In the school dance in Grease, a girl is dragged along the floor by her ankle, flailing her arms and free leg wildly.

Being Human (UK): Among other resistant ghosts in the series, this happens to Annie at the end of season two. Strangely, the viewer can see the character's ankles and there's visibly nothing physically pulling the victim through the door.

Supernatural: This happens quite often to the victims of the week, usually into sewerage systems or under cars. Or both.

The X-Files. In the opening of "Nothing Important Happened Today" a man picks up a woman at a bar; while driving home she forces the car off a bridge into the water. As he tries to swim to safety, the woman (still sitting in the passenger seat) reaches up and holds his ankle until he drowns. This is our introduction to the Super Soldier plotline, showing they can breathe underwater.

A comedic version of this is done in the Even Stevens episode "Secret World of Girls". After the girls realize the boys have been spying on their slumber party all night, they rush down to the basement to confront them. All of the frightened boys manage to scramble outside through the open window except for Louis; Ren grabs his ankle just as he's about to escape, and drags him back in as he screams.

Professional Wrestling

Jack Swagger drags Rey Mysterio away from WWE Smackdown in his ankle lock finishing move with intent to throw Mysterio into the Gulf Of Mexico.(Jack ends up taking a dive instead)

Video Games

In Dead Space, there is a monster that grabs its victims by the ankle and pulls them down corridors. The player has to kill it before it drags Isaac to its mouth and eats him.

This is how you meet Sigrun in Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening, as she's being dragged away by darkspawn. Unlike most examples, she manages to kick free and get back up.

If Heather dies in Silent Hill 3, her corpse is sometimes seen to be dragged off screen by Valtiel via the ankles, presumably to resurrect her.

If you try to cross a bridge over water inhabited by...something without first killing it, Heather will also be dragged off the bridge and die this way.

Prototype: When Alex Mercer hijacks a tank, a possible animation sees him rip the hatch open, leap inside, and a member of the hapless tank crew crawl from the hatch and almost make it over the edge of the tank before Alex reaches out and drags him back inside by the ankle. Then screaming happens. And a lot of blood.

Happens to the second-to-last SWAT member in Nightmare House 2 when he's standing near a semi-open shutter.

Done twice to Lara in the E3 demo of the Tomb Raider reboot. If you fail, it's an instant death.

In Final Fantasy VIII, an anacondaur monster does this with a wounded Dollet soldier in the Dollet Comm Tower mission.

In Dead Space: Extraction, Karen Howell is dragged away by a tentacle, she doesn't make it because Warren abandoned her when she called him out for seeding Unitologists in Ishimura's ranks.

In the DuckTales episode "Armstrong", Armstrong grabs Launchpad by his foot as the pilot attempts to get into his plane and begins pulling him down. He's only stopped by being soaked in the water Launchpad uses when he's helping Duckburg's fire department.

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